Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 475 The Battle for Allies

As more than half of 1909 passed, the situation on the European continent became increasingly tense. On the surface, the conflict between the core countries of the two major military blocs, Germany and France, intensified.

Although the world does not have a Moroccan crisis to provoke hatred between the two countries, the animosity between Germany and France has been passed down for decades and does not seem to need any other unexpected events to stir it up.

On the other hand, although the two Balkan wars have ended, the situation in the Balkans has not become calm at all.

Bulgaria suffered betrayal from many Balkan countries during the Second Balkan War. Although it eventually gained some territory, the final outcome was clearly contrary to Bulgaria's initial expectations.

Bulgaria naturally harbored considerable hatred towards Serbia and Greece, who had betrayed it. Had it not been for their sudden betrayal, Bulgaria would likely have become the most powerful nation in the Balkans, and Ferdinand I's title of Tsar would have been more legitimate.

Yes, even after the Balkan Wars ended, Prince Ferdinand I of Bulgaria still declared himself Tsar, which was a message to all Bulgarians that even if they lost the war, Bulgaria would never give up its goal of becoming the leader of the Yugoslav nation.

This action also serves as a reminder to Serbia and Greece that Bulgaria will return. Sooner or later, Bulgaria will reclaim these territories through war, and Serbia and Greece will become Bulgaria's greatest enemies.

Whether he proclaimed himself Tsar or continued his Bulgarian expansionist plans, Ferdinand I was backed by Germany and Austria-Hungary.

It was precisely because of the support of the two great powers that Bulgaria, despite its defeat, became the most confident of all.

Despite Serbia's greatest gains in the war, its situation has become the worst among the Balkan countries due to its deep-seated antagonism towards Bulgaria, essentially putting it in a precarious position with enemies on all sides.

Dealing with Austria-Hungary was already quite difficult, and the addition of Bulgaria's hatred made Serbia's situation in the Balkans extremely precarious.

More importantly, after Bulgaria's defeat, the anti-Bulgarian alliance, originally intended to target Bulgaria, effectively became ineffective.

The anti-Bulgarian alliance has achieved its objectives. Of the three main countries, Serbia, Greece, and Romania, only Serbia actually wants the anti-Bulgarian alliance to continue.

Romania, the seemingly strongest country in the Balkans, is unwilling to antagonize Bulgaria to the point of no return. After all, Romania also has to contend with the threat from Russia, which, if it wants to expand its influence in the Balkans, must first bring Romania under its control.

Given its heightened vigilance against Russia, if Romania were to further alienate Bulgaria, its situation would be no better than Serbia's.

For this reason, Romania has no further plans to target Bulgaria, nor does it intend to allow the anti-Bulgarian alliance to continue to exist.

Greece goes without saying. Backed by the British Empire, Greece, and Serbia backed by Russia, actually have conflicting interests.

Britain would love to see the conflict between Serbia and Bulgaria continue, creating even more trouble for Russia, the country behind Serbia.

As for Greece, having already gained vast territories and a large population, there is no need for it to continue targeting Bulgaria. After all, Bulgaria's army is quite formidable, and if provoked, Greece might not be a match for it, even though Greece now surpasses Bulgaria in both area and population.

If the dissolution of the anti-Bulgarian alliance was just bad news for Serbia, then the news of Bulgaria joining the Central Powers was like a bolt from the blue.

Although Bulgaria would have received support from Germany's allies even if it didn't join the Central Powers, whether or not it was a member of the Central Powers was still quite important in military matters.

If Bulgaria joins the Central Powers and goes to war with Serbia, it will very likely provoke intervention from Germany and Austria-Hungary, who will forcefully intervene in the war in the name of allies.

Serbia could barely handle even Austria-Hungary, let alone the much stronger Germany. If Germany were to send a small force, coupled with an attack from Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria, Serbia would be conquered in a short time, unless Russia or France were willing to join the war.

After Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Serbia also contacted Russia, its backer, hoping to join the Entente Powers formed by the Franco-Russian alliance, so as to ease its predicament.

Russia supports Serbia's application to join the Entente Powers. After all, Serbia is one of the few Balkan countries that stands with Russia. If Serbia were allowed to be partitioned by Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria, Russia would have no say in the Balkans.

As for the issue of offending Germany and Austria-Hungary, since the two major military blocs are already facing such intense conflict or even war, why should we consider the negative consequences of offending them?

Faced with the continuous expansion of the Central Powers, the Allied Powers also needed to find more allies in Europe.

France and Russia agreed to Serbia's request to join the Entente Powers with almost no hesitation.

It was precisely because Bulgaria and Serbia joined the Central Powers and the Allied Powers respectively that the two military blocs began a large-scale campaign across Europe to compete for allies.

The first country the Central Powers courted was the Ottoman Empire. As a crucial link in the logistical supply lines established by Germany, the Ottoman Empire had historically maintained relatively good relations with Germany.

The reason is quite simple: the Ottoman Empire had extremely poor relations with Russia in modern history, and even experienced several Russo-Turkish wars.

The Ottoman Empire could not possibly side with France and Russia. Furthermore, the recent reforms of the Ottoman Empire had received substantial support from Germany, which further deepened the relationship between the Ottoman Empire and Germany.

The Ottoman Empire's open joining of the Central Powers did not attract much attention in Europe. After all, the Ottoman Empire was no longer the super-empire that spanned three continents: Asia, Europe, and Africa, but a declining and backward country that barely retained any territory in the Anatolian Peninsula.

The Ottoman Empire was even known as the "Sick Man of Europe" in Europe. For France and Russia, the threat posed by the Ottoman Empire joining the Central Powers was very limited, at most not much different from the significance of Bulgaria joining the Central Powers.

However, the Ottoman Empire, after all, controlled the Strait of Constantinople, and this open act of joining the Central Powers signified their firm opposition to Russia. On October 12, 1909, Montenegro joined the Entente Powers as a close ally of Serbia.

After Serbia expanded its territory southward, Montenegro was effectively surrounded by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Serbia, and Albania.

Faced with the overwhelming Austro-Hungarian Empire, Montenegro was forced to cooperate with Serbia to jointly deal with the invasion of the foreign enemy.

Since Serbia has joined the Entente Powers, Montenegro naturally has no other choice. It can't just side with Austria-Hungary, as that would most likely result in its annexation.

Besides Montenegro, the Allied Powers also attempted to push Romania to join the Franco-Russian alliance.

Although Romania has always been on guard against Russian invasion, its acquisition of Southern Dobroca through joining the anti-Bulgarian alliance shows that Romania is still very interested in territorial expansion.

As luck would have it, Transylvania, the region of Hungary controlled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, happened to be among Romania's expansionist targets.

For this reason, France and Russia offered Romania the Transylvania region of Austria-Hungary in exchange for Romania joining the Entente Powers to jointly counter the threats posed by Germany and Austria-Hungary.

As can be seen from the map, if Romania had joined the Entente Powers, it would have been very helpful to the situation in the Balkans.

Romania is adjacent to Serbia, which means that Russian and French supplies could be transported to Serbia through Romania, helping Serbia better resist the invasion of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Serbia and Romania could also be linked together, along with Montenegro to make up the numbers, forming a solid defensive line against the southward expansion of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, ensuring that the Balkan Peninsula south of this line would not be invaded by the Allied forces.

Although the terms offered by France and Russia were very tempting, Romania was unwilling to openly join the Entente Powers at this juncture. Doing so would have completely alienated Bulgaria and brought Romania more and more powerful enemies.

The failure to win over Romania was bad news for the Franco-Russian alliance, but fortunately, Romania did not express a clear refusal to join the alliance. They simply did not want to take sides at this moment, but hoped to carefully choose the stronger party when the situation became clearer.

After all, the Romanian royal family has German ancestry, and Romania and Germany have a secret alliance. For Romania, this means they can indeed flexibly choose sides, selecting the strongest party in a war to ensure their continued victory.

Having failed to win over Romania, the Franco-Russian alliance turned its attention to other countries, such as Spain, which held considerable prestige in the Mediterranean.

In fact, the Allied powers had been courting Spain for a long time, and their efforts had yielded some results.

Spain and France signed a series of cooperation treaties, which strengthened their economic cooperation and mended the rift caused by competition for North African colonies.

Furthermore, Spain's premature annexation of Morocco prevented the Moroccan crisis from erupting, which kept relations between France and Spain relatively normal, or at least not deteriorating.

However, like Romania, Spain is unwilling to take sides at this time. The Spanish royal family also has Italian ancestry, and coupled with its own formidable strength, it would be warmly welcomed by any military bloc regardless of which side it joins.

This is why Carlo was in no hurry. Carlo hoped that the world war would be more intense, and that Spain would enter the war at the most crucial moment. This would allow Spain to avoid huge casualties in the early stages of the war and also earn enough revenue in the early stages to cover the enormous military expenditures after joining the war.

Although Spain did not explicitly join the Franco-Russian alliance, the French government signed a non-aggression pact with Spain and further reduced the number of troops stationed along their border.

Spain and France pledged to strengthen their respective economic cooperation, including cooperation between the two countries in the western Mediterranean.

As the two most powerful colonial powers besides Britain, Spain and France together occupied nearly a third of the Mediterranean coastline, including their homelands and colonies.

The combined influence of France and Spain in the Mediterranean was in no way inferior to that of Britain. Especially in the western Mediterranean, specifically the area west of Malta, Britain's influence was far less.

Currently, Britain's sphere of influence in the Mediterranean has shrunk to east of Malta, and it mainly relies on the Suez Canal to exert its influence.

Aside from Greece, a relatively clear supporter, Britain doesn't really have any allies with strong stances in the Mediterranean region. This reflects the difference between the current European situation and the historical situation, and to some extent, it is also a reason for the more intense competition between the two military blocs.

The Franco-Russian alliance was wooing Spain, while the German-Austrian alliance was actually wooing Britain.

Germany has tried to win over Spain, but with very limited success. Again, Spain is unwilling to take sides prematurely, and its attitude towards both France and Germany is quite clear: neutrality coupled with a willingness to engage in economic cooperation.

Since they couldn't win over Spain, Germany and Austria-Hungary naturally turned their attention to Britain.

Although Britain was defeated in the war with Spain, the Royal Navy subsequently announced a series of warship construction plans, catching up with Spain in both the development of dreadnoughts and super-dreadnoughts.

It is currently impossible to determine whether the British Navy or the Spanish Navy is stronger, but it is certain that once Britain builds more warships, it will still be ahead of Spain in terms of dreadnoughts, unless Spain is also willing to invest in its navy at all costs, which is unrealistic.

Britain could invest the majority of its military budget in naval development, while Spain had to take care of the development of its army, and could only allocate a maximum of 60% of its military budget to the navy.

This resulted in Spain building its navy at a much slower pace than Britain, especially considering that Britain itself was much wealthier than Spain.

(End of this chapter)